How long should I work out for? A question that many first-time gym-goers may wonder. In general, how long you should exercise has a lot of variables including what your fitness level is as well as the type of workout you are doing. When it comes to time at the gym, one thing is certain, and that is timing your workouts is important in order to stay on track and avoid injury or burnout.
Timing a Workout to Stay Focused
The main driver of consistent and effective exercise is focus. A part of staying focused is having a goal to reach. Time can be an easy indicator of whether you have stayed on track or met the desired goal. Timing an exercise routine, and then meeting the targeted time, will allow you to focus your workouts, measure your success and later challenge yourself by adding more time as your fitness level increases. How long you should work out is dependent on the type of workout you are doing. Overall, the more intense the workout the shorter period.
Too Much Exercise Can Be Bad for You
There is such thing as too much of a good thing. Recent studies have focused on the benefits of exercise on organs like the heart, but also acknowledge the stress caused by too much. Timing workouts can help you make sure you are not over-exercising and incorporating rest. Not resting can have a negative impact on a workout, causing exhaustion, or overuse injuries. At rest, the body will go through a process to repair and rebuild muscle. In fact, much of endurance training depends on strategically timed rest periods between sets which can help offset lactic acid build-up, and train muscles to be more resistant to fatigue.
Maximize Fat Burn
Most gym-goers can agree that not seeing results can be very discouraging, what’s more, frustrating is not knowing how to tweak your workouts to accelerate your goals. Timing your workout can be a great way to put your fitness level to the test and maximize fat burn. Coupled with a tracking device like a heart monitor can help provide real data to measure how hard you are in fact working; if you do not time yourself, you may assume you are working out harder than you are. Hitting your target heart rate over a specific time will ensure you are pushing yourself enough to see results. High-intensity interval training (HITT) for example, is heavily dependent on spurts of as little as 30 seconds of high-intensity bursts of activity with periods of rest. Timing yourself, as well as monitoring your heart rate can take your workouts to the next level.
Body and Way of Life Fitness
Body and Way of Life Fitness is committed to helping you achieve your weight loss or fitness goals. Our personal trainers can help make sure you are timing your workouts appropriately by developing a personalized schedule coupled with a nutrition plan to optimize your results.